This disclosure relates generally to a gas turbine engine thrust reverser system and, more particularly, to optimizing an axial length of a thrust reverser cascade.
Gas turbine engines typically include a fan section, a turbine section, a compressor section, and a combustor section. Gas turbine engines may employ a geared architecture connecting the fan section and the turbine section. Air moves into the gas turbine engine through the fan section. Some of this air moves into a core of the gas turbine engine. The remaining portion of the air moves through a bypass flowpath established between the core and a nacelle.
Within the core, airfoil arrays in the compressor section rotate to compress air. The compressed air is then mixed with fuel and combusted in the combustor section. The products of combustion are expanded to rotatably drive airfoil arrays in the turbine section. Rotating the airfoil arrays in the turbine section drives rotation of the fan and compressor sections.
Flow moving through the bypass flowpath exits the bypass flowpath at a flowpath exhaust. Flow through the bypass flowpath generates thrust.
Thrust reverser systems within gas turbine engines typically include a blocker door that is deployed to redirect flow from the bypass flowpath through cascades within the nacelle. The redirected flow generates reverse thrust to slow forward movement of the gas turbine engine, in some examples, an airplane. Thrust reverser systems maintain an effective area of flow moving from the bypass flowpath when the blocker door is stowed and when the blocker door is deployed. Operation of the fan section may become disturbed if deploying the blocker door changes the effective area.